Manuel Ignacio Fuentes Martínez, 21, allegedly killed his cellmate at La Serena prison in Chile and ate body parts, claiming he did it out of self-defence as he was attacked with a knife
A prisoner allegedly murdered his cellmate before eating an eye, ear, and parts of his hand and neck, after claiming he “panicked”.
The grisly scene was discovered by a guard conducting routine checks on the morning of February 8 at La Serena prison in Chile. “Boss, I killed him,” Manuel Ignacio Fuentes Martínez reportedly told the officer in a cold, emotionless tone.
Inside the cell lay the body of Felipe Sebastián Sepúlveda Ramos. He was missing an eye, a hand, an ear, and had bite marks on his neck.
Fuentes, 21, claimed he killed 26-year-old Sepúlveda in self-defence with a hidden knife the day before. “In the evening, he lunged at me with a knife. I had one too, so I struck first before he could attack, dodging his stab,” local media quoted him as saying.
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“I stabbed him in the neck, and he began convulsing. I checked his neck and pulse and realised he was dead. I will only say it was in self-defence.”
In the early hours of the morning, Fuentes allegedly began eating parts of his victim. “I started panicking over what I’d done and began eating parts of his body,” he was quoted.
“I took out an eye and ate it, along with a piece of his hand and his neck. After that, I ate an ear. Later, I covered him and fell asleep next to him. In the morning, when the officer entered the cell, they realised what I had done.”
His father, Manuel Fuentes, criticised prison authorities for neglecting his son’s needs. “He needed medication, he needed to be seen by a specialist,” he said. “He has a diagnosed neuropsychiatric condition, and it’s on record. It’s documented in the system.”
Fuentes was serving a seven-year sentence for armed robbery against a 76-year-old woman and her nine-year-old granddaughter in La Reina in 2022. He escaped from Puente Alto prison in 2023 before being recaptured in Argentina and extradited back to Chile.
He spent time in a Santiago prison before being transferred to La Serena due to behavioural issues. “With my hand on my heart, I offer a thousand apologies for what happened with Manuel,” said Fuentes’s mother, Paola Martínez, addressing the family of Sepúlveda.
“I know it is unforgivable, but I know my son didn’t want to do it, and there must have been reasons behind it.” It later emerged that orders had been issued to transfer both men to separate prisons, but neither transfer was carried out. Fuentes is now charged with homicide and cannibalism.
